An unfinished story...

Several years ago, on this blog, I wrote about the movie "Cloud Atlas" (it was in 2013 - link to relevant post and comments: https://twilightstarsong.blogspot.com/2013/05/cloud-atlas.html)


In a comment responding to "LB", I wrote:

I love the general idea of a soul or some manner of eternal personality travelling through time... Husband and I, back in 2003/4, in England, began trying to dream up (me) and write (him) a story along such lines, using around 3 or 4 sets of situations, spread from medieval times to the years of World War II. The link, through time, would be a piece of fabric. Husband wrote a super preface to the first chapter, I did keep it, but at the moment cannot lay hands on it. Other things, such as marriage and house selling and moving to the USA got in the way of continuing that venture. I often still ponder on how such a set of tales could unfold and link up though. :-) That was one reason I was so keen to see "Cloud Atlas".

Well, just today, while tidying some papers, I came across that preface, and more! Here it is - my husband aka "anyjazz" wrote it from an idea I put forward. He said that he felt a need to make some explanation as to why the piece of fabric was so cryptic, and powerful. He's a much better creative writer than me.  We  decided to share: ideas from me, writing from himself. I love this preface. There are also some outlines of rough ideas of how the tale should unfold, but I'll keep those for another day, if anyone is interested. For now.... the preface only:  are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin. Once upon a time....


"Preface:

A crescent moon and a single candle spread yellow light across a small room. An ancient woman works at a loom. She works slowly with great purpose, grand design. Her fingers pull the yarn tight, knot it here, counting the cross threads, another knot there. The woman pauses, wipes the corners of her eyes. A candle and a crescent moon are little help to her near blindness. She weaves and counts by touch. She creates to the image in her mind, an image formed of seasons of watching the stars, the changing patterns of her skies.


Over years she has collected life about her. Over these years she collected the sound of the squirrel in the fresh air from the forest, the scent of the wildflowers on their spread down the side of the hill and honeybees on the breeze from the valley, the touch of the rich earth and the polished stones on the path from the hills, the taste of the spring water and wild herb. All these pieces of life she knows. All these things are in the knots and the curious weave of the strip of fabric she is creating. And something else. She pauses and smiles at the crescent moon that is now only a glow in her dimming eyes. She smiles at the stars she can no longer see but knows in her heart are there. She is following their instructions. She and the stars are creative partners in this soft band of fabric.


The flax was gathered on a late summer day. It was years ago. The linen yarn was spun slowly on evenings after the children were bathed and sleeping. The skeins of yarn were dyed in iron cauldrons of color from the wild berries from the hills and from curious red-brown earth left when a fiery stone fell from the heavens. The woman ground these colors in stone cups, blending each with care. The wild bushes and sapling trees at the edge of the small forest held the drying loops of yarn. The sun contributed subtle changes to the colors here and there.


Now after years of preparation, the last thread, the last weave, the last knot was in place. It is a lovely band of textured fabric, a unique scarf fit for royalty. The labor of her life was complete. Complete that is, except for the delivery. The creation is not for her. It never has been. She has known for a long time where the small scarf will go. She has known the color of the container, the place in the stars, the position of the sun. Exactly. And it is tomorrow.


The sun now glows above the trees at the edge of the great lawn in the front of the estate. A pale green and gold trimmed carriage waits at steps. The driver sits atop, holding the reins of a patient horse. Last night’s sleep is still in his eyes. A footman stands ready at the top step of the front landing. Behind him the carriage door stands open.


A small figure emerges from the trimmed shrubbery, approaches the carriage quietly and places something on the seat just inside the open door. Then as quickly, the figure is gone."

Poetry, Lifetimes and X-Files - Oh My!

I wouldn't have expected to hear Robert Browning quoted in an episode of The X-Files, but in episode 5 of season 4 he was! The episode is titled The Field Where I Died.

Hang on a mo 'til I explain how I come to be posting, yet again, on an X-Files episode.

My intention for today was to scribble a bit about The Pleiades star cluster, aka The Seven Sisters or to astronomy geeks, Messier 45 or M45 - the cluster is located currently on the cusp of Taurus/Gemini. However, after skimming through a variety of ever more fantastical ramblings on the subject, entertaining as they may have been, I decided to give the topic a miss. Then, that same evening we watched the aforementioned episode of X-Files - The Field Where I Died. I enjoyed it. We decided the writers had stitched together ideas from some real life events and characters (Waco, Jonestown, and the Bridie Murphy stories) then added a touch of the ol' X-Files magic. The name of a cult in the episode, reflection of those involved in the Waco and Jonestown events, was The Temple of the Seven Stars. Hmmm - Seven Stars? The Pleiades by any other name? Alrighty then, this has to be my alternative blog post!

The episode opens with Mulder (David Duchovny) reciting words from Paracelsus, a long poem by Robert Browning. The passage refers clearly to the concept of reincarnation. As he speaks, Mulder gazes at two vintage photographs from the time of the US Civil War .

"At times I almost dream
I too have spent a life the sages' way,
And tread once more familiar paths. Perchance
I perished in an arrogant self-reliance
An age ago; and in that act, a prayer
For one more chance went up so earnest, so
Instinct with better light let in by Death,
That life was blotted out — not so completely
But scattered wrecks enough of it remain,
Dim memories; as now, when seems once more
The goal in sight again."

Wikipedia's page, here, outlines the episode's full storyline.

Fascinating stuff - the idea of reincarnation has always intrigued me, even though I'm not sure I can give the concept full credence. The version of reincarnation depicted in this story indicates that not only do our spirits live on in other bodies, time after time, throughout history, but that we associate with the same group of spirits in each incarnation, though in different ways, different "roles". I've come across this idea before - don't recall exactly where....the movie Cloud Atlas was a recent example, but I'm trying to recall something earlier.

Melissa, one of the cult members and a wife of cult leader of The Temple of the Seven Stars, during investigation and questioning by Mulder and Scully, had been displaying periodical lapses into what appeared to be some kind of multiple personality disorder; her voice and attitude would change abruptly and dramatically. Mulder suspects there's more to it than multiple-personality disorder. He feels something mysterious himself, and undergoes deep hypnosis. He discovers that he was once a soldier, Sullivan Biddle, in the Civil War killed in battle while his wife watched. His then wife is now Melissa of the cult. Dana Scully, Mulder's current FBI partner was, back then, his father. He progresses through other lifetimes outlining how Scully and Melissa, and others known to viewers fitted in various "roles". Scully, in another lifetime, was Mulder's sibling, with Melissa playing some other part.....and so on. Later, Scully is able to establish, from documentation, that Sullivan Biddle and his wife Sarah did indeed exist in that area at the time of the Civil War, and the photographs seen in the opening scene were among the records of that period. The soldier's portrait bears an eery resemblance to....yep - Mulder.

It's a romantic notion, and one I want to believe, but can't -not quite. A wee story from my own experience. The first time I met my now husband ("anyjazz"), face to face, was at the airport in Oklahoma City when I ventured to OK for a week's vacation, after having corresponded with him online for quite some time. Husband is in no way given to flights of metaphysical or supernatural fancy, but just about the first thing he said to me after "Hello" and a chaste kiss was along the lines of, "You know I do really think we have met before". (Yeah, I know - classic pick-up line!) I think I mumbled something about other lifetimes, then laughed nervously. Who knows? Maybe I was his mother, father, brother, sister, or the woman who washed his shirts in the 1920s, or a fellow-prisoner on a prison ship from Scotland, sailing to the USA in the early 1700s; or perhaps we were friends as Roman soldiers during the Roman invasion of Britain... don't get me started! Believing or imagining such things could make for a harmless enough pastime. There are far worse things to believe in.

Previous posts touching on reincarnation can be read HERE, HERE and HERE.

Evolutionary Astrological Music Monday

A relevant song to lead me into today's post: "In My Next Life" sung by Merle Haggard, written by Max D. Barnes.

Last week the topic of planetary nodes came up in commentary on this post.
While searching online for more information on planetary nodes, a branch of astrology known as Evolutionary Astrology kept cropping up. I've investigated this branch of the astrological family tree before, and have tried to feel enthusiastic about it, due to a few well-known popular astrologers being involved. I couldn't quite do enthusiasm, curiosity was the best I managed.

Aspects of reincarnation - it plays a major part in Evolutionary Astrology - have been featured in past posts linked below, they're worth a look, also for commentary there. I'd like to feel confident about past and future lifetimes being possibilities for us all, but I can't, and remain, probably for ever, a student of the Don't Know School.

Archived posts touching on reincarnation:

Reincarnation
Reincarnation - Another Look at Tallan
Wednesday Woo-woo: Past Lives

During my search the other day I found a long, painstakingly thorough and even-handed, piece by astrologer & therapist Glenn Perry on the topic of astrology's role, or lack of it, in reincarnational thinking:
A Critical Review Of Reincarnational Astrology. A paragraph from the piece is quoted below:

One might anticipate that evolutionary astrologers will argue that their stories work precisely because the South Node symbolizes karma from past lives. Yet, it cannot be overstated that all one can actually know about the South Node is that it appears to correlate to a deeply ingrained, inborn pattern of feeling and behavior, just as the Sun, Moon, and Ascendant correspond to deeply ingrained, inborn patterns. This is all that we can actually observe. Over time, one might notice a shift in behavior from what is more familiar (South Node) to what is less familiar (North Node), and back and forth, until the polarity is maximally integrated over the course of the life. Astrologers can embellish this simple observation with all sorts of esoteric meanings and karmic entailments, but it doesn't change the fact that all we can know is what we can observe. To claim any more than this is to draw a dogmatic conclusion from ambiguous data.

I see Moon's Nodes as just sensitive points and/or cyclical markers, in a natal chart, nothing more than that so really, I stand a few steps back even from Mr Perry's view.

Part of the author's concluding paragraphs:

The commercialization of reincarnation through the sale of astrological readings, books, and computer-generated reports casts a tawdry shadow over the entire field. The law of karma is at the core of virtually every spiritual tradition that has exerted influence throughout recorded history and is arguably the deepest, most profound of all moral teachings. Likewise, the doctrine of reincarnation refers to the immortality of the human soul and outlines the means by which the psyche finds its way home—reunited with the source of its own being. For astrologers to commercialize these sacred doctrines for personal profit through a pretense of transcendental knowledge is ethically indefensible. Merely believing in reincarnation does not entitle one to make up stories of past lives and then sell this information to the gullible masses. Such a practice exploits the credulity of clients by fraudulently portraying the astrologer as having knowledge not actually possessed.................

Standing ovation on this:

....The best remedy against the seductive but ultimately false security of self-sealing doctrines is critical thinking, without which astrology will remain forever in danger of contamination by noxious and spurious claims. False prophets abound in fields situated in the heavenly realms. And true believers are their life-blood. Every individual astrologer needs to take special pains not to become either one—neither a false prophet, nor a true believer.

I began with a song, and will end with one - this song seems to be looking back to a past life rather than onward to a next life....but who knows where or when?"

Arty Farty Friday ~ REINCARNATION

After yesterday's post considering a possible reincarnation, and Wednesday's about Manly P. Hall and his beliefs, thoughts about reincarnation still hover.

An Arty Farty reincarnation medley for today then: illustrations, a poem, a story, quotes......but first some words on astrology and reincarnation.

I'm on the fence. I don't know. Nor, actually, does anyone else. But many have written trillions of words on the subject. The best few words on the topic I've found, from an astrologer, are at The Real Astrology website. Astrologer Kevin Burk has a section there devoted to answering readers' questions. In response to a question about finding evidence of reincarnation in a natal chart he wrote this:

Peg,
I don’t think that any single element in the chart can identify what our Sun Sign was in a past incarnation. As you’ve no doubt noticed, the books that present these various theories also tend to be the books that greatly over-emphasize the importance of the Sun Sign in the first place.

Astrology can most certainly provide information about past lives, and one of the key sources for this information is the South Node. But before we go any further, it’s important to remember that time, and particularly our three-dimensional linear perception of time, is an illusion. Personally, I believe that it is impossible to tell if something is from a ‘past life’ or from a ‘future life’ because ultimately there is no difference...and therefore, trying to find out who you were the last time you were here is rather futile.

The South Node describes experiences that we have had in a past life, or in past lives. We are meant to take these experiences and bring them to the next level by working with the North Node. However, the South Node may represent a collection of past lives, or a single, specific past life, but not the most recent life. My personal philosophy is that whatever I did and whoever I was, I’m here now and that’s all that matters. I’m always open to insight from my past experiences, particularly when it applies to patterns and issues that I’m working on in this current lifetime, but my interest in my past lives doesn’t go much deeper than that.

With strong reservations, I mention Martin Schulman’s Book, Karmic Astrology: The Moon’s Nodes and Reincarnation. Schulman does explore the various past life lessons presented by the South Node; however he does so in (what I feel) is a very fatalistic and almost accusatory manner. It is, however, the only book on the Nodes that I have seen that specifically addresses the question of past lives.
http://www.therealastrology.com/

PAST LIVES by Maxine Olson




QUOTES:

"Doctrine of reincarnation is neither absurd nor useless. It is not more surprising to be born twice than once."
- Voltaire

"We all have some experience of a feeling, that comes over us occasionally, of what we are saying and doing having been said and done before, in a remote time - of our having been surrounded, dim ages ago, by the same faces, objects, and circumstances."
- Charles Dickens (David Copperfield)

"It is conceivable that I might well be reborn as a Chinese coolie. In such case I should lodge a protest."
- Winston Churchill

"The most promising evidence bearing on reincarnation seems to come from the spontaneous cases, especially among children."
- Ian Stevenson

"Have you never observed that children will sometimes, of a sudden, give utterance to ideas which makes us wonder how they got possession of them? Which presuppose a long series of other ideas and secret self-communings? Which break forth like a full stream out of the earth, an infallible sign that the stream was not produced in a moment from a few raindrops, but had long been flowing concealed beneath the ground?"
- J. G. Herder

STORY:

The King Milinda once asked the Buddhist sage Nagasena: "When someone is reborn, is he the same as the one who just died, or is he different?"

Nagasena replied: "He is neither the same nor different....Tell me, if a man were to light a lamp, could it provide light the whole night long?"
"Yes."
"Is the flame then which burns in the first watch of the night the same as the one that burns in the second...or the last?"
"No."
"Does that mean there is one lamp in the first watch of the night, another in the second, and another in the third?"
"No, it's because of that one lamp that the light shines all night."
"Rebirth is much the same. One phenomenon arises and another stops, simultaneously. So the first act of consciousness in the new existence is neither the same as the last act of consciousness in the previous existence, nor is it different."

(http://www.amazon.com/Questions-King-Milinda-N-K-G-Mendis/dp/9552400678)

POEM: by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882)

Sudden Light

I HAVE been here before,
But when or how I cannot tell:
I know the grass beyond the door,
The sweet keen smell,
The sighing sound, the lights around the shore.

You have been mine before,—
How long ago I may not know:
But just when at that swallow's soar
Your neck turned so,
Some veil did fall,—I knew it all of yore.

Has this been thus before?
And shall not thus time's eddying flight
Still with our lives our love restore
In death's despite,
And day and night yield one delight once more?

AND can't forget this song... words by Lorenz Hart music by Richard Rodgers - Peggy Lee & Benny Goodman Trio perform "Where or When"

VERSE


Sometimes you think you've lived before
All that you live today
Things you do come back to you
As though they knew the way
Oh, the tricks your mind can play!



REFRAIN


It seem we stood and talked like this before
we looked at each other in the same way then,
But I can't remember where or when.
The clothes you're wearing are the clothes you wore.
The smile you are smiling you were smilimg then,
But I can't remember where or when.

Some things that happend for the first time,
Seem to be happening again.
Amd so it seems that we have met before
and laughed before
and loved before,
But who knows where or when.

NOTE: Eagle-eyed passing readers might notice that I am not providing many direct hyper-links these days. Reason: Blogger techies have provided an updated editing facility, which I don't care for, and which has caused a "bug" in the old editing program. The "bug" collapses paragraphs when trying to use the hyperlink facility - other stuff too. Blogger is working to sort the problem out - it is said. So - apologies for lack of hyperlinks and other niceties.

A Reincarnation? Another look at Tallan Latz & Stevie Ray Vaughan

A comment on a 2009 post of mine arrived last week. The post featured a young prodigy: guitarist, Tallan Latz. Link to the 2009 post http://twilightstarsong.blogspot.com/2009/07/prodigy-tallan-noble-latz.html

The comment, from David H. Larsen:

"This kid blew me away. As a practicing Buddhist, the idea that he was a blues/rock performer in a past life is not at all fanciful. He really reminds me of Stevie Ray Vaughn, and given that SRV died in the middle of his career appogee it would make sense that he would want to come back to finish what he started. Not to take it away from Tallan though; he is a talent in his own right."

That partially echoed my own feelings and those of an earlier, anonymous, commenter who had written:

Thanks for the article! I strongly suspect Tallan to be the reincarnation of Stevie Ray Vaughan due in part to these similarities in birth and death: SRV died in the sign of Virgo in Wisconsin near the birth place of Tallan in Elkhorn. The comparison of their birth charts and SRV's death chart also show uncanny connections.

Stevie Ray Vaughan, a highly successful blues guitarist died in August 1990.
From Wikipedia:

At around 1:00 a.m. on August 27, 1990, Vaughan was flying by helicopter from East Troy, Wisconsin to Chicago with members of Eric Clapton's tour crew. The helicopter crashed into the side of a 300-foot–high hill. Vaughan was killed, along with Nigel Browne and Colin Smythe. Earlier that evening, Vaughan had played with Double Trouble at Alpine Valley Music Theatre, featured as a special guest with Eric Clapton, Buddy Guy, Robert Cray and Jimmie Vaughan. Vaughan was interred at Laurel Land Memorial Park in Dallas, Texas. Martha and Jimmie Vaughan sued the helicopter company, Omniflight, based in Addison, Texas, for negligence in allowing the unqualified pilot, Jeff Brown, to fly and for allowing the flight in dense fog.

At the beginning of my 2009 post I had said:

I'm not sure I believe in reincarnation, but when I see someone like 9-year old Tallan Noble Latz, hear his guitar playing - I do have to wonder! I heard this young lad when he appeared in American's Got Talent. Apparently he is already quite well known in some circles - a prodigy, nicknamed "The T-Man".

A video from a blues festival in 2010.

I should take a look at the charts of the two guitarists. Here they are. I have no time of birth for Tallan so use 12 noon. Astrotheme gives 3:40 AM for Stevie Ray - I've used that.

I have no idea what to look for to find hints of possible reincarnation. All I can do is look for similarities in the charts.






SRV had Virgo rising (if birthtime is correct). He died when Sun was in Virgo (27 August 1990 - chart @ right).
TL has Sun in Virgo.

One link between TL's birth chart and SRV's death chart is Uranus at 4.56 Aquarius in TL's chart conjunct Moon's North node in SRV's death chart (5.50 Aquarius.) Moon's nodes are linked to reincarnation by some astrologers. In addition, Pluto (planet associated with death) was at 15 Scorpio at time of SRV's death, close to his natal Venus (21 Scorpio) and close also, on the other side, to TL's natal Venus(12 Scorpio).

SRV had Venus (planet of the arts) at 21 Scorpio
TL has Venus at 12 Scorpio.

SRV had Jupiter & Uranus conjoined, in Cancer.
TL has Jupiter & Uranus conjoined in early Aquarius and with Neptune in the conjunction from 27 Capricorn (all 3 retrograde).

SRV had Moon at 19 Gemini. If TL were born sometime close to noon his Moon would be exactly opposite, at around 19 Gemini. Conjecture only, as I am without TL's time of birth.

My only other thought, perhaps one that might be more palatable to passing readers who think that reincarnation is fanciful at best. Tallan was born in the same state as Stevie Ray, who was doubtless idolised there. He could have been exposed to the playing of SRV from the time he emerged from the womb if his parents were fans. Rather than reincarnation, might this be an example of a child with prodigious talent simply emulating an idol?

Any other thoughts?


Stevie Ray Vaughan with Pride and Joy